Articles from November 2011

Middlebrooks collected most of his at-bats for Double-A Portland in 2011. As a 22-year-old across three levels, including 16 games in the International League, Middlebrooks slashed .285/.328/.506. Obviously from those numbers, plate discipline is a big issue with Middlebrooks because he does not really have any. He only walked 26 times in over 450 plate appearances, and that kind of reckless use of his time at the dish makes predicting offensive success in the AL East pretty tough.

Myers was ranked considerably higher last year, but a tough season in the Texas League as a 20-year-old has knocked him back a bit. A triple slash line of .254/.353/.393 wouldn’t look nearly as bad if he was still behind the dish, but those numbers from a corner guy are far less impressive. Nevertheless, he was a 20-year old in a very advanced league for someone that age, and all of the tools are still present. Additionally he missed about a month of the first half due to a freak knee injury.

Walker was Seattle’s first pick in the 2010 draft, and the 6-foot-4 right-hander had a terrific first professional season in the Midwest League (A). He threw up a sub-3.00 ERA with 113 strikeouts against 39 walks. He only allowed four jacks in nearly 100 innings of work and has a chance to be a very fast mover in hopes of reaching the Bigs in time to join Felix Hernandez, Michael Pineda, and Danny Hultzen at Safeco.

Walker is extremely athletic with loads of projection and a fastball that reaches the high-90s. With a big downer curve that receives consistent plus to double-plus gradings, Walker already has at least two plus pitches. His changeup is way behind the other two pitches, but Walker is already making huge strides in terms of command and clearly seems to understand what it means to pitch. The addition of an average or better changeup could see Walker land in the Show by 2013 so long as he breezes through the high Minors like he has with Class A.

As you can see, Bryce Harper has fine-tuned his swing since making his professional debut in the Arizona Fall League in 2010. Gone is the last minute, inward-foot-turn load. Now, Harper has a more traditional stride and load that I would assume allows him to drive more off-speed and outer-half offerings. But just because he’s made adjustments doesn’t mean he’s sacrificed any of his robust power. From what I can see, and from what his Minor League and Arizona Fall League stats indicate, his power is just as ridiculous, if not more ridiculous – if that’s even possible. All I know is that I can’t wait for Spring Training to roll around so that the “is Bryce Harper ready for the Major Leagues?” debate once again consumes the baseball world.

Lee was signed as an 18-year-old out of South Korea and was sent to Tampa from the Cubs in the Matt Garza deal. He likely will prove to be the most valuable chip that was traded in that deal except for maybe Garza himself. Lee is an exceptional fielder, arguably the best shortstop in the Minors today in terms of what he is capable of in the field. He has phenomenal range and a plus arm with outstanding instincts and feel for the position. His bat is behind and he will never provide the thump to be the consistent all-star that some other shortstop prospects likely will.

Lee is going to approach a .300 average in at least a season or two. In 2011 across two stops including 100 at-bats in the Southern League with Montgomery, Lee posted a .292/.365/.416 slash line with 33 swipes and 37 XBH’s. He will probably never approach a 20-bomb Major League season, but he runs well and can stretch for a handful of extra bags each year beyond a replacement level guy.

We expect Lee to begin 2012 as a 21-year-old shortstop in Double-A with a chance to reach the Show later in the season or open the 2013 season as the starter at Tropicana. If we’ve learned anything, though, it’s that Tampa is more than willing to be aggressive with promotions especially in years in which they are in contention. We expect Tampa to be very competitive in 2012 too.